Resident-led Management Committee Appointed

£20m integrated Old Trafford community hub appoints resident-led Management Committee to shape and drive local services

Limelight, the new community health and wellbeing hub based in the heart of Old Trafford, has announced details of the resident-led committee which will help steer and shape its neighbourhood services and local facilities when it opens publicly later this year.

Drawn from across Old Trafford and the wider borough of Trafford, and with a diverse mix of skills and experience, the eleven-strong group will be responsible for the governance and delivery of Limelight’s strategic priorities in line with the mission and vision of the project. This will include ensuring Limelight is “more than just a building” and will be “an amazing, and innovative multi-user space”.

The committee is really keen to continue to ensure that Limelight puts the local community first, provides services that directly address local community needs, and that Limelight’s management listens and acts on feedback from customers to ensure it meets changing community needs in the future.

They will also work closely with the Limelight centre manager David Teasdale, and colleagues from Trafford Housing Trust who originally commissioned the Limelight scheme, to ensure the smooth and successful running of the hub as an inclusive and accessible space for all.

The committee will be led by Niki Stockton, who has lived in Old Trafford for over 20 years and has extensive experience in managing housing schemes, delivering local services and regenerating neighbourhoods at a senior level.

Niki will be joined by other long standing Old Trafford residents, including Abdul Huy Malek – Head Teacher at the local Afifah Islamic secondary school – and Charlene Burgundy, an experienced solicitor who has lived in the area all her life.

Additional Old Traffordians include Hannah Paterson, who works for the Big Lottery Fund as a learning manager; Sukhbir Singh, an IT and management consultant who works with local charities; Sabera Hafejee, a multi-lingual community interpreter; and Mohammed Adil Javed, an actor and arts specialist who is director of the local Alchemy Arts youth and community project.

Dora Blake, a senior social housing professional, and Sharon Dempsey, Director of an IT Consultancy that specialises in digital, technology and organisational change will also join the team, bringing additional knowledge and skills to the committee.

Two other members of the steering group, Doretta Maynard, an athletic Trainer and Coach and Jean-Erica Barrett, a Regeneration & Housing Project Management Consultant were both previously involved in Limelight’s original Design Action Groups (DAGs).

The DAGs, which were created by Trafford Housing Trust over three years ago, were made up of small groups of local residents who helped shape the interior design, landscaping, Extra Care provision and social impact of Limelight as the project evolved. The DAG groups also met regularly as the scheme moved from blueprint to building site, and influenced many aspects of the Limelight scheme as the new hub emerged on the Shrewsbury Street site.

Both Doretta and Jean-Erica will help ensure the original Limelight concept, which was also informed by extensive public consultation involving over 2,000 people from the local area, will be reflected in the decisions and approach undertaken by the new management committee.

Niki Stockton, Chair of the Limelight Management Committee

All of the Management Committee are passionate about Old Trafford, and we are all very proud of the many diverse communities which live and work here. Limelight is set to embody this spirit of inclusiveness and collaboration, and both I and my fellow committee members are greatly looking forward to helping make it a truly inspirational, multi-cultural and intergenerational space accessible to all for the benefit of everyone.

David Teasdale, Limelight’s manager

Limelight offers us an opportunity to try something really bold and different in Old Trafford from the very start, but the resident-led committee will also ensure we stay true to the community-focussed mission and local values which have been at the heart of the project since its very inception.

I am greatly looking forward to working with Niki and the other members of the team to create a destination that is far greater than the sum of its individual parts, and one which will make a real impact on the wellbeing of local people and all of the areas different communities. Also with Doretta and Jean-Erica on board we will benefit from their experience and insights gained from the very beginning, including the extensive public consultation and the work of the DAGs which have had a massive influence on how the project has evolved so far.